Making Sense of POTUS: Part II--Traits 1 and 2

At the end of Nine Consistent Things About Donald Trump, I promised more on the traits that I identified in the post. You may remember that the first two are:

1. There is nothing more important than being successful and admired.
2. Morality in general, and honesty in particular, are instruments (among others) used to achieve success and admiration; neither carries an imperative.

Needless to say, there is an abundance of proof of the President's obsession with success and admiration. Indeed, my second post to this blog (To be-or not to be-surprised by Trump: Part II--On the Couch) discussed exactly that. Of course, the Donald keeps replenishing the supply, too.

To understand Mr.Trump's use of morality and honesty to amass more success and admiration, consider how he responds each time he's confronted about his crass commentary. Three episodes, occurring early in the primary season, will amply prove the point.

Take a look at how he defended his remarks about Carley Fiorina's face, Megyn Kelly bleeding, and Mitt Romney being on his knees. His reference to Fiorina's face was metaphoric, he said. And he was referring, he claimed, only to those orifices that are north of Kelly's neck. While Romney being on his knees was, Trump said, an allusion to begging. 

Each of these explanations is just 

plausible enough that the Donald can significantly minimize blow-back by denying that he meant what he clearly implied, and enjoy the political results of having said something outrageous at the same time. 

In other words, he uses the truth for political gain, which he defines as success and admiration. He does not tell the truth for its own sake.

Making Sense of POTUS: Part I--Nine Consistent Things About Donald Trump

Here are nine consistent things about Donald Trump, gleaned from his public persona. In upcoming posts, I'll talk about each one in detail.

1-There is nothing more important to the

   President-Elect than being successful and   

   admired.

2-Morality in general, and honesty in particular, 

   are instruments (among others) used to achieve 

   success and admiration ; neither carries an    

   imperative.

3-The Donald will not take responsibility for any   

   ill-conceived action or comment, however 
   intense the blowback is.

4-When Trump is forced to confront his bad 
   behavior, he ignores it, denies it, or rationalizes 
   it as the result of being victimized.     
    
5-The POTUS-Elect feels entitled to special 
   treatment and thus also feels victimized by 
   others' criticism of him.

6-When Donald feels victimized, he becomes 
   angry and publicly shames the object(s) of his 

   ire.

7-Mr. Trump is   neither insightful nor prone to guilt, partially

accounting for his ability to tolerate his own contradictions and hypocrisy.

8-In his worldview, people are tools and not 

   intrinsically valuable.

9-In his worldview, history, precedent and 

   protocol are irrelevant.

Overall, not a pretty picture.

Stay tuned for more on each of these.

[There is a problem with the mobile reformatting of this post. My apologies.]

To be, or not to be (surprised by Trump), that is the question: Part I

I get a kick out of people being surprised by something Donald Trump says or does. Not because I reasonably expect bad behavior and base commentary, considering his long history of public childishness, bigotry, bombast, vapidity, contradiction, and absurdity. But, because Trump's efforts to amass more power are incessant and nakedly obvious. Moreover, his efforts are generally successful, making them even more conspicuous. Consider his wealth, his empire, his campaign to become the leader of the free world. Yet, some people are still surprised.

To be fair, though, others are not. And while the unsurprised are probably Trump supporters, one still wonders how they can shrug off his crass style. Certainly, as many have said, Trumpsters are angry. They also believe that Trump will aggressively pursue reaching their goals, so-as the narrative goes- they give him a pass. This explanation is true but insufficient in this way. Angry people like to tell the objects of their anger that they are wrong. Are we to believe that there is not even one finger-wagger among all of these stewing sycophants? Of course there is, and surely many more. 

So, what is it about the dynamic between Trump and his supporters that keeps this from bubbling up?